Mr. Anders' Website

As a Juilliard graduate, your child will be taught the same curriculum and in the same manner as children that attend the children's music program at The Juilliard School in New York, New York.

My goal is to provide high quality and rigorous conservatory training to the public school students of Ute Meadows.

They deserve nothing less.

-Mr. Anders

Mr. Anders is very happy to be the new music teacher at Ute Meadows Elementary school and he is very eager to share his love of music and the performing arts with the students. His graduate degree is in Dalcroze Eurhythmics from the acclaimed Juilliard School in N.Y., N.Y. and his undergraduate degree is in Music - Organ Performance with a minor in Education is from WTA&M University. He also is an international guest clinician and teaches other music teachers in the Dalcroze/Eurhythmics approach. He teaches the graduate summer Dalcroze Course at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Mr. Anders is one of the few certified and practicing rhythmiticians in the public schools. He is also the Organist at St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church in Denver, Colorado where he specializes in the works of the French Romantics. Please click here for a sample of his work.

What is the Dalcroze Teaching Method?

The Dalcroze method, also known as Dalcroze Eurhythmics, incorporates the basic elements of music—rhythm, melody, harmony—with body movement, to provide a multi-dimensional approach to music learning. Unlike most traditional methods, improvisation is a major component of the Dalcroze approach and one of its three aspects:

Improvisation brings all elements together according to the student's own invention, in movement, with voice, at an instrument. (Dalcroze Society of America)

Beyond musical intelligence, the Dalcroze approach engages and exercises several other aspects of intelligence. Musical games and experiments engage logical thinking. Eurhythmics appeals to kinesthetic and spatial types of learners. The social quality of music-making develops communication, feeling, and empathy. Dalcroze is fun! It has the physicality of sports, aesthetic appeal of the arts, and is mentally challenging, for all ages. Unfortunately, programs are not widespread, and where they exist, they are frequently for children only.

The Dalcroze concept of improvisation is close to the nature of childhood play, which is a child's work. Improvisation frees a child to relate directly and spontaneously to music within a range of musical knowledge. Improvising with full-body movement, singing or playing an instrument, helps the child internalize complex elements of rhythm, pitch, tone and dynamics without having to read a musical score. Through improvisation, composing becomes a personal and immediate creative act. A child enhances his creative spirit through improvisation and carries that spirit into his daily life.

Emile Dalcroze was a visionary 19th-century pedagogue. He did not like his approach to be labeled as a method. Teachers are trained in techniques and principles, which they adapt to the characteristics, needs and abilities of their students.